As it approaches its seventh anniversary of release at the end of the year, The Greatest Showman soundtrack is still going strong.
While Now That’s What I Call Music 118 is set to be No.1 in the compilations chart this week, the compilations brand has seen a steep fall in physical sales in recent years as part of a wider market decline.
In contrast, the decision to move soundtracks to the compilations chart at the beginning of 2020 has seen some movie perennials dominate that rundown.
Chief among them is The Greatest Showman, released via Atlantic, which was the No.1 overall compilation album in 2020 and 2021. It lost out to Encanto in 2022 and the Barbie soundtrack in 2023, but The Greatest Showman could reclaim its No.1 annual position in 2024.
According to Music Week research up to chart week 30, The Greatest Showman is No.2 overall for compilations for the year to date (76,602 sales – Official Charts Company) behind Hazbin Hotel – Season 1 (80,570 sales). But The Greatest Showman has narrowed the lead since the midway point of the year.
In fact, The Greatest Showman has spent five weeks at No.1 on the compilations chart this year, has rarely been out of the Top 3 and never out of the Top 5. It has sales to date of 2,813,096. Famously, its domination of the artist album charts – No.1 overall in 2018 and No.3 in 2019 – prompted a rule change for soundtracks.
Other successful soundtracks, cast recordings and compilations in 2024 include Barbie The Album, Hamilton, Suicide Squad – The Album, Moana, Mamma Mia, Frozen and Eurovision Song Contest – Malmo. Of those only Barbie and Eurovision are current releases.
Physical-focused various-artists albums have struggled in recent years because streaming allows people to compile their own playlists.
“The outlook for compilations is complex,” said Kim Bayley, CEO of digital entertainment retailers association ERA. “The accessibility of streaming playlists has clearly had an impact, but availability has played a part. Supermarkets always held a disproportionate share of compilation sales and with two of the major chains having exited music and two carrying vastly reduced ranges, it’s little wonder sales have declined. Availability is a precondition for sales.”
We are seeing that the more original music that goes into films and shows, the more impact they can have
Marc Robinson
But that’s not the only challenge for the sector. New release soundtracks are also being crowded out by heavy streaming of older, popular titles – a more pronounced phenomenon even than in the artist album charts where catalogue also makes its mark.
“It's a much tougher market now and especially if it's just a compilation of tracks that are readily available, it's a tougher one to break through on,” said Marc Robinson, Mercury Studios co-president and Globe president, who spoke to Music Week recently for the release of the This Town OST.
The traditional pre-release marketing for a film and soundtrack has been shaken up by the multiple viewing options available over a longer period of time, from the cinema release to pay-per-view video streaming platforms and then as part of a subscription.
“There are still the big cinema releases, but you don't have as much control over when people are digesting that content [on audiovisual streaming platforms],” said Robinson. “You have to tailor it more and more to the different release mechanisms. But we are seeing that the more original music that goes into these films and shows, the more impact they can have.”
That was underlined by the success of the Twisters soundtrack, which debuted at No.1 on the compilations chart last week with sales of 3,118. Although not a substantial total, half of that was down to consistent streaming of the soundtrack’s newly recorded country songs by acts including Luke Combs, Miranda Lambert and Thomas Rhett. Combs’ track Ain’t No Love In Oklahoma charted at No.68.
Of course, a movie sync can still deliver a substantial streaming result for a new song or classic tune, such as Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s 2001 hit Murder On The Dancefloor seeing a revival following its placement in Saltburn. But there are a limited amount of soundtracks that truly connect with fans.
“There are a lot of great film scores that come out that get slightly lost because the volume of content being made, and the film and TV series that have a music narrative now is on the increase,” said Robinson. “When soundtracks do go [in terms of strong streaming consumption] they seem to hang around for a long time, they do seem to connect. A lot of these big soundtracks now, they’re original music, or musicals or they’re big properties of 20 years ago that still seem to have an audience.”
The success of music biopics has not translated into strong sales for tie-in compilations, as seen by recent music releases for Bob Marley: One Love and Amy Winehouse film Back To Black.
“With the biopics, I’ve yet to see a case where the soundtrack outsells the original catalogue,” said Robinson. “Even though Rocketman did very well, the streams still went to [Elton John compilation] Diamonds.”
Back To Black: Songs from the Original Motion Picture was a carefully curated compilation, including music that influenced Winehouse alongside her own recordings, released by Island/UMR in April. But the repertoire boost from the film was largely for the original 2006 Back To Black album.
On a positive note, the compilations market is up 3.5% year-on-year at this point in 2024. However, that increase is from a base that has shrunk dramatically in recent years.
Nevertheless, with the revival in physical music reported by Music Week, physical compilations – whether an established brand or attached to a popular movie property – could also benefit. The Now series has broadened its offering in response to the shrinking market.
“Now in particular has proved itself remarkably versatile as a music brand and adept at consistently evolving to meet consumer demand,” said BPI CEO Dr Jo Twist. “With the decline in CDs slowing and vinyl still on the rise and even cassettes enjoying niche appeal, compilations and soundtracks can also find a place in this era of choice and continuing demand for recorded music across all formats.”
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